Searches for sourdough recipes have risen in popularity since lockdown, with ‘sourdough pizza recipes’ remaining popular, according to Google Trends. Fancy trying to make your own? Home appliance specialist Miele shares the secret to the perfect homemade pizza here…

Sourdough pizza ingredients

• 400g strong white flour
• 275ml tepid water
• 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 30g sourdough starter
• 10g sea salt
• 250g marinara
• A few handfuls of mozzarella
• Desired toppings

Sourdough pizza recipe

1. Combine the flour, 250ml of water and oil in a bowl and mix until everything is incorporated and there is no dry flour left. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave to one side for 30 minutes. At this stage we are not kneading, we are allowing all the flour particles to absorb the water in a process called autolyse.
2. Add the remaining water, starter and salt and incorporate into the dough. Knead the dough now for 5 minutes or until smooth and elastic (this step can be done by hand or if you have a food mixer, do it with the dough hook attached on a medium speed).
3. Transfer the dough into a bowl and cover with a damp cloth or cling film and leave at room temperature overnight or up to 18 hours (the longer that you leave the dough to ferment, the better the flavour will be).
4. When ready, tip the dough onto a floured surface and divide into 4 equal pieces and shape them into tight round balls. Cover with a tea towel and leave to rest for an extra two hours.
5. Preheat a Miele Oven on Intensive Bake 250˚C with the baking tray on the second shelf.
6. Dust your worktop with a little flour and flatten and stretch the dough either with your hands or with a rolling pin.
7. If you don’t have a pizza peel, the easiest way it to place your dough on top of some baking parchment. Add your tomato sauce, mozzarella and desired toppings and then transfer into the oven. It is perfectly fine to bake the pizza with the parchment paper underneath. Bake for 8-10 minutes and repeat with the remaining ones.

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How to make your own sourdough starter

Sourdough is extremely popular and once you get your starter alive, it will pretty much last forever as long as you keep feeding it. Follow the below steps for about a week until it’s ready.

1. Use a glass jar or container and weigh 50g of strong bread flour and 50ml of water at room temperature. Stir to form a rough dough, it doesn’t need to be completely smooth, just no dry patches of flour and leave the mixture uncovered somewhere draught free in your kitchen for 24 hours.
2. The following day, discard half of the mixture and add another 50g of flour and 50ml of water and stir well. Leave uncovered once again for another 24 hours.
3. Repeat this process for a total of 5 days always with the jar uncovered. By this time, you will see some bubbles in the jar, and that is the indication that the yeast is developing.
4. Now, for a few more days, you will need to do this process twice a day until the starter is alive and bubbling a few hours after it has been fed. This is what we call the active starter.

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